J-L educating voters on Feb. 26 millage

February 18, 2002|By Michael Jones

JOHANNESBURG - On Tuesday, Feb. 26 voters from the Johannesburg-Lewiston (J-L) Area Schools district will decide whether new classroom space will be added to both the Johannesburg K-12 and Lewiston K-8 school buildings.

Voters will be asked to approve a bond request for .7 mills for five years to finance construction of six K-8 classrooms in Johannesburg and four K-8 classrooms and one storage room at the Lewiston school. If passed, the proposal would generate approximately $1.7 million.

The request comes in response to a recommendation by the district's feasibility study committee which was asked to address overcrowding at both schools. A recent study conducted on behalf of the district by Stanfred and Associates indicates enrollment trends will rise over the next five years and could reach between 929 to 1,078 students during that time. Current enrollments shows 853 students in the district.

J-L Supt. Jim Hilgendorf said several grades at each building are, "on the bubble" as far as the need to split grades into two classrooms to alleviate high classroom numbers. "We have, as an example, 32 students in the fifth grade in Johannesburg. Right now if we had a few more fifth-grade students move into the district and we decided a classroom split was the way to go, we wouldn't be able to do it because there would be no room to put another classroom."

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Hilgendorf said the addition of new classrooms would give the district the ability to split all grades in both buildings at the K-8 level and, "it will give us some breathing room. It's not going to happen all at one time, but it will be a good investment into the future," said Hilgendorf.

The superintendent said the district is hoping for a good voter turnout on the 26th. "I think it will be in our favor if the number of voters is high. There is a general consensus that this project is going to be a positive thing for our schools. I hope that everyone has a good understanding of the need here. I haven't heard any negative reactions."

To keep the public informed of the building proposal, Hilgendorf said members of the facilities building committee have been busy getting the word out, meeting with business owners and other key community members at both Johannesburg and Lewiston. "We realize our committee and others will be doing their work on this," said the superintendent.

Hilgendorf said the committee has representation from both the Johannesburg and Lewiston communities and hopes to reach the voters at a grassroots level as well, by involving room parent volunteers to talk to other parents about the upcoming millage election.

The district settled on asking for the .7-mill request because it was an amount which had a historical context with the community. "When our 1978 millage was going off the tax rolls in 1998, it had been reduced over the years to .7 mills. At that time we asked the voters to keep the .7 mills for three more years to make some outdoor improvements at both buildings," said Hilgendorf.

Last year that .7 mills went off the tax rolls and the amount was something the district felt the community was familiar with and something the voters might be willing to support, explained Hilgendorf.